A Treasure of a Nation's Shadows
by A.W. LeMonte
Summary: A sleu of assassinations have occured. Now Naruto, Hinata, and Sakura have been assigned to figure out why. But there's a vast treasure at the hart of this beyond anyone's understanding and there's more to Hinata's past than would ever meet the eye.


**AN/Disclaimer: I own nothing of Naruto etc. This fic is a slight, very slight AU and I'm trying to remain as faithful to canon as possible but then this is my story and I'll do with it as I wish. If you don't like AU then don't read. **

**Chapter 1**

She was just barely able to make it through the streets for the blowing winds where tossing everything about and tonight of all nights was the worst night possible to go to where she was going but there was money in what she was doing and as she made sure her load behind her was securely in the wagon, there wasn't much to worry about. The worst part about all this was that her destination was off into the forest far from the village which was good in terms of seclusion but in terms of travel convenience, it was a nightmare.

She made her way down the beaten path deep into the forest where the scent of the trees acted like a natural kick somewhat reinvigorating her senses. She pressed on and so headstrong was she in her persistence, she didn't notice until the burn hit that she'd scratched her face on some branches. She put her hand to her cheek and looked at it as close as she could and in the darkness, she saw blood being washed by the rain from her hand. The sooner the bloody act was done, the better off she'd be.

After twenty minutes of a perilous trek through the thrashing winds and torrential rains she came to a rather large waterfall which came from over a high cliff. The job was nearly done now. Taking her wagon; she went along the path behind the waterfall into a natural cave which was lit with torches. The cave was quite warm and the torches gave light to the stairwell she'd used many times already. However, she wasn't to use it just yet or rather, she knew the stairs wouldn't be of use until her load was delivered.

Just then, she heard a distinct squeaking noise and it brought a faint smile to her features. It was the sound of the pulleys lowering the scaffolding upon which her load was to be placed. She went back to her wagon and lifted the first portion of her load: a heavy mass the size of a man wrapped in black sheets and tied with hemp rope. She set this gently down on the scaffolding and repeated the process but with each portion of the load the weight varied from one-hundred seventy pounds to one-hundred eight pounds. Once done, she rang a small bell which was on a pole attached to the scaffolding.

The pulleys went to work again and the scaffolding ascended into the darkness above vanishing within a few minutes. There was a silence save the sound of the waterfall that oppressed her spirits until she heard the sound of light footfall coming down the stairwell. She looked at the stairs and saw another woman appear clad in a black kimono with what looked like dark emerald green by the light of the torches. The woman signaled for her to follow her and she did so promptly for this was all part of the routine. The pair went up four flights of stairs until coming to a black door then, the woman turned to her and motioned for her to put her hands up. She did so and since nothing was found, she was allowed to enter.

Opening the door, she came to a hallway decorated with ornate tapestries of dragons and great mythical beasts the walls and floor were all mahogany and shine elegantly in the light cast by the roaring fire in the room beyond. She took off her sandals, placed the monogramed black guest slippers on her feet, and went forward into the room but stopped short when she saw her employer's shadowyform sitting in a comfy sofa in front of her with his back to her. The woman who'd led her to the door passed her carrying a wine pitcher made from what looked like cut crystal in the form of a skull.

Her employer cleared his throat and said, "You do realize I can see and hear you, dear Amara?"

Realizing trying to remain secretive was futile, Amara came forward out of the hall way and was going to sit down in the chair adjacent her employer but she was stopped when he said, "You can stop worrying about your forehead, your bleeding has stopped."

Shocked she asked in a near whisper, "How did you…it's nothing, Master Zavara. I was able to retrieve the bodies of those assassinated this morning. They're most likely in the morgue if you'd care to look at them."

A majority of Zavara's facial features remained in shadow and as he held out his hand for his servant to pour the wine, Amara could make out the distinctive silver ring with garnet center stone. She squinted in an effort to see his face but the way he was angled in relation to her made it so the only thing she could see of him was the shape of his head, partially his chin, and his teeth when he smiled. As the wine was poured, Amara observed the dark velvety liquid run smoothly into the glass and at once realized her own thirst.

Zavara looked at her and turned to his wine pourer saying, "Please, give Amara something for her trouble. A glass of wine will suffice and tell the other servant so make the spare room available so she can stay the night. Tell them to make sure the fireplace is lit and the bed's given some of the best covers."

Amara surprised at his generosity and grateful for his hospitality smiled and nodded saying in her usual soft voice, "Thank you, Master Zavara. Tell me, are we going to the Leaf Village as planned or are we going to Sand first?"

"Well, to be honest," he replied, it's still too hot for me in the Leaf right now. Sand's our best bet we've received a contract to kill a radical priest in that area as well as aid in the transport of gunpowder supplies to the new Sand fort."

"With all due respect, master, wouldn't it be easier to go to Konoha? I mean it's been close to seventeen years since you had that incident of yours so long ago."

Taking a drink he replied, "Just trust me. It'll be far better once I've gotten news from my sources inside that everything is clear then we can infiltrate and I can catch up on the years I've missed there."

Amara acknowledged this fact and got up to go look around. She went first to the armory where everyone in their squad kept their weapons. Yet, the squad itself wasn't at all traditional. Instead of the usual three, there were four groups of six and a good bulk of these individuals were women since it was Zavara's philosophy that women are mankind's greatest tool since so much devilry can exist behind the façade of kindness, meekness, dignity, and grace and when angered, will be like a thousand poisoned arrows into a man's back.

She went over to her portion of the armory which consisted of one hundred fifty square feet. She looked over her Sand disguise and being content with the tan cloak-like clothing, fishnet leggings, and fishnet top; she turned her eyes over to her weapons selection. She had a pack of senbon needles disguised as hair pins, a Sand styled sword which looked like a Yataghan, and her treasured weapon for close quarters defense and attack, her ivory handled Kukri fighting knife.

She unsheathed her knife and polished the blade so that it shined so brightly and clearly, it could be practically used as a mirror. She sheathed her blade and put it back inside the ivory box it came from. Finished with her inspection she headed to the initiation room where she beheld the slashed headbands of everyone in and who'd ever been Zavara's league of assassins. Four hundred forty-eight headbands lay in glass display cases all of them from every nation on the map from great countries like the Sand and Leaf to seemingly infantile nations like the Land of Greens. At least one person from every nation Amara knew had answered Zavara's call.

As for Zavara himself, after he'd finished his wine, he got up from his sofa and went down a long hallway which at the end had stairs descending into a secluded lower level of his villa. He came to a pair of green doors and opened them to reveal a mortuary lit by torches and kept in a natural cave which was spacious enough to hold two hundred men inside. The sound of the water drip from the overhead stalagmites added the sense of a powerful foreboding that chilled his soul but only for a minute for he'd worked in worse conditions. He entered his mortuary and after rounding a corner, found the cargo which Amara had taken with her through the storm. Walking over to the masses, he lifted them one by one onto a nearby table.

Once he had the bundles lined up according to height, he took out a kunai and cut the ropes securing their wrapping. He then pulled back the black cloths and saw the faces of his targets which he's selected for assassination: an old priest, the village madam, the captain of the village's security detail, the head of the village medical corps, and the gatekeeper to the navel outlet for the village's few warships. He removed the cadavers' clothes, and set them in two separate crates, one for men and the other for women to be used as disguises later the same procedure went with the weaponry that each cadaver carried even the priest had a knife buried underneath his cloak.

The inventory of weapons and clothes once complete, Zavara began the true project. These victims weren't just chosen at random and to the casual observer, the selection of the victims looked for the most part politically convenient. However, these people all were interconnected through one thing. Turning each cadaver over, Zavara found it; piece by piece, cadaver by cadaver, the map to the treasure of the mythical Stone village swordsman turned privateer, Balasara Myugi was coming to light. Five cadavers carried tattooed on their backs four corners of the map and a compass rose.

Zavara knew that with the treasure of Myugi he'd be able to buy any of the great nations for according to mythical lore; Myugi had raided and completely decimated the entire treasure fleet of the Sand villages early life. Five-hundred fifty million in gold and jewels all to be claimed by whosoever owned the map. Zavara knew what he must do and so he made a circle around the tattoos with alcohol and took out a large black bag and laid out its contents before him. Scalpels of numerous blade style and size were laid out in manner of importance. While true, he could've used a transference scroll to copy the map, in his own now diseased mind, it was far more entertaining this way. After he'd cut each piece of flesh containing remnants of the map, he proceeded with a specialized ultra-thin knife to skin the flesh so that only the map remnants remained.

Taking out his journal he wrote the following in poetic format:

"_Five out of eighty six remnants. A small help I know but still it's better than just the rumors of the treasure. Now, at last I've conformation the treasure's existence for now it's just a matter of finding the other eighty five and extracting from them what I want. The trouble being most of these are old, old men and women by now and unfortunately I'm afraid time may not be on my side. Still, it doesn't mean one can't exhume the body the trick to that being that one has to get there before the horrendous stage of external decay begins._

_It's unthinkable if one thinks about a map that is only whole when all members of a crew are together again. I know that the Hyuga clan of the Leaf has it's elders but they're far too pompous and on high to admit that half of their wealth came from illicit deals with murderers and mutineers. Besides, infiltrating the Leaf will be extremely difficult now especially after the invasion of Pain. Even so, if my sources are correct there are six pieces of the map in the Leaf spread throughout different clans._

_However, with the Hunter-nin on my trail, we have to look to our own borders meaning we have to move to our next base outside the Sand village underneath the dunes. It's a harsh journey and I'm sure that not many of the fresh recruits will make it but it's all necessary to my purpose. The purpose being: Once I get my hands on the magnificent fabled wealth, I'll be able to return to the Leaf village to reclaim my daughter and finally she'll be able to know her father after such a long time. _

Putting his pen down, he turned back to the cadavers on the slabs and as he'd anticipated this, he pulled a lever which linked the slabs together by wire and cogwheels. A trapdoor opened allowing the bodies to slip away into darkness. The passage the bodies took eventually led to the great river that flowed from the mountain yet, the cadavers had to go through quite a journey and it was not unusual for bodies to have a limb either missing or bones of a limb or even the chest completely crushed for even though it was a downhill decent, a typical cadaver would usually bounce and smash against the rounded step-like rock ledges until it reached the fifty foot fall into the river.

The bodies gone from the mortuary, Zavara headed to a darker part of the cavern and struck a match. Thanks to a small hole in the cave wall, Zavara had over time made a cavern and in this small cavern had his own fighting wardrobe which consisted of the following: A steel back and chest plate engraved with the symbols of the dragon and cobra; a chainmail shirt lay under it. Steel vambraces and spaulders also adorned the mannequin which they clothed while a flowing hooded set of robes cinched with an emerald silk sash wrapped all of them. The robes were an elaborate affair the colors being black as an outer color and emerald green as the inlay.

In truth Zavara cherished the entire wardrobe for it was the only gift which he had from his wife of so long ago. He remembered it was of great expense for the materials and design were obviously from foreign shores tailored specifically for him. The reason for all this uniqueness amongst his fellow villagers was simple in that Zavara hated above all things being made into part of a mold that wasn't of his own design. He turned from his armor and robes and headed over to his weapons mounted on the far wall of the cavern.

Taking his weapons off the wall mounts he examined them in the light flung by the torches around him. His sword was a magnificent masterpiece light yet powerful. With a blade of twenty eight inches and being double-edged, it was the perfect sword for slashing and thrusting. The hilt was bejeweled with sapphire and emerald and at its top, had a small dragon seal which made Zavara's blade distinguishable from all those before him.

For stealth styled assassinations he carried only one tool. A bamboo shaft of wood no more than six inches long which he loaded with darts made from his own concoctions based off poisons used in various jutsu he'd observed some of his followers use. As he continued with his inventory, he brought out his fighting knife which was a jambiya and object that had both hilt and sheathed bejeweled with rubies, amethyst, and jade making the weapon the most expensive item on his person.

Just at that moment, the flapping of wings where heard on the other side of the cavern. Going to where the origin of the sound was Zavara saw one of his specially trained scouting ravens come into the cavern from the only hole that had access to the outside. He whistled and the bird perched on his arm. Zavara looked at the bird's leg and saw the scroll which he sought.

Opening it, he read the following: Master, the hunter-nin are hot on your trail! You need to assemble everyone and start moving now! By the time you get this letter, the hunters will be there in just two days."

Taking this dire warning to heart, Zavara donned his armor, robes, and weapons but not before taking duplicate headbands of each village. He then returned to his villa's main room and opened a secret compartment hidden behind several bricks in the fireplace. He pulled from it a small white shell with hints of pink and blue. Taking a deep breath, he blew the shell sounding a deep drone which then rose to a high pitched whistle. No sooner had the sound dissipated, all around him and on the balcony outside, his entire following stood before him awaiting instruction.

"Listen!" he yelled even though it was dead quite, "The hunter-nin are on our trail again which means as you all know we have to move. So, same process as before, pack everything necessary for infiltration, assassination, and your personal comfort, and afterwards, activate the genjutsu which has kept our sanctuary safe for so long. You all have twenty minutes to arm, supply yourselves, and meet me in the courtyard for our departure. Is that clear?"

The group bowed in acknowledgement and went off to fulfill the order. Meanwhile, Zavara went to his subterranean study and packed all of his notes, maps, charts, and journals into a pack. Then, he took one last item, his treasured instrument of Genjutsu; an ivory Aulos engraved with mother of pearl. He placed this in a small black wooded box and placed it securely in his pack. With everything ready, he headed out to the courtyard and waited for his followers. Within ten minutes, they gathered and the signal to start the genjutsu was given.

Once he was told the genjutsu was complete, Zavara added his final touch by taking out his Aulos. He ordered for all to cover their ears and once he had looked over the group and saw the order was complete, he began to play an oddly suspenseful but at same time, hypnotic melody. Finishing his song, he put the instrument back in it's case and signaled for the group to move. Within seconds, the group was speeding through the trees of the forest on their way to the Sand vanishing in the torrents of rain becoming fainter with each flash of lightening.

**AN: Please read and review and be gentle. This is the first fic I've attempted of this kind. **


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